This morning we awake to news of the 2024 shortlist for The Wolfson History Prize. Showcasing six of the best history books from the past year, The Wolfson History Prize is the most prestigious history writing prize in the UK. This is its 52nd year celebrating books that demonstrate the relevance to today's society of history and historical writing. The books that are selected as part of the shortlists and winners for this prize merge an excellence in research with readability for a general audience. 

The Wolfson History Prize awards £75,000 each year with the winner awarded £50,000 and the five shortlisted authors receiving £5,000 each. To be eligible for the prize, authors must be resident in the UK during the year of the book's publication, which is the preceding year of the award. Authors can only win the prize once, with previous winners not eligible. 

Without any further preamble, the Wolfson History Prize 2024 shortlist is:

Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century by Joya Chatterji

Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire by Nandini Das

Traders in Men: Merchants and the Transformation of the Transatlantic Slave Trade by Nicholas Radburn

Our NHS: A History of Britain’s Best-Loved Institution by Andrew Seaton

Winnie & Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage by Jonny Steinberg

Out of the Darkness: The Germans, 1942-2022 by Frank Trentmann

The shortlist for the 2024 prize covers history across multiple centuries and countries. There is a focus this year on major turning points in the history of Britain, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, South Africa and the Americas. 

Shadows at Noon by Joya Chatterji is no stranger to awards lists, being longlisted for the first Women's Prize for Non-Fiction and shortlisted for the Cundhill History Prize 2024. Focusing on the elements which unite the nations of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the journey from British Raj through to independence and partition is charted with a conversational writing style that pays close attention to food, cinema and household as much as it does politics. 

The turbulent history of South Asia is also the focus of Courting India, which won the British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding in 2023. Nandini Das challenges our understanding of Britain and its early influence in the subcontinent prior to the British Raj through r-examining Thomas Roe's Fateful Expedition to India in 1616. This ground-breaking debut explores an important chapter in Indo-Britain relations through art, literature, the sights and sounds of Jacobean London and Imperial India. When the ailing Stuart monarchy was a stark contrast to the wealthy and cultured Mughal Empire of the time. 

Jonny Steinberg examines Apartheid South Africa in Winnie & Nelson. A profoundly moving biography that has already won the National Book Critics Circle Award, concentrating the famous political leader's personal relationship with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. An area of Mandela's life that has received less scholarly attention, Steinberg explores a union that played out on the world stage with fresh insight and empathy and drawing on never-before-published conversations between the couple. 

The horrors of one of the darkest eras in human history are examined in Traders in Men by Nicholas Radburn. In this meticulously researched book it is documented how the slave trade was created through vicious and cruel new ways of doing business by merchants in Britain, Africa and the Americas. Methodically laying out how the traders of the time conspired to facilitate the sale of millions of people, Traders in Men is transatlantic in its scope and reflects on the long-term effects that continue to reverberate to this day. 

Out of the Darkness by Frank Trentmann poses the question: how did the Germans emerge from totalitarianism, and where did they go from there? As it follows the German people from the Second World War to the present. Trentmann's compelling, vivid writing looks at migrants, soldiers, families and popularists. Containing reflections on complicity, compassion, conscience, and struggles about right and wrong at the heart of studies that attempt to understand the moral transformation of the German people throughout the 20th century. 

The NHS, a key pillar of the UK's national identity, is paid tribute to in Andrew Seaton's Our NHS. Tracing from the first rumblings on the idea to the financially challenging post war decades, the rise of neoliberalism and right into our current precarious post-pandemic era. Seaton's book is wide-ranging, highlighting the resilience of the service while acknowledging the NHS staff from Britain and abroad who have ensured its survival. 

This year the panel of distinguished judges comprise of the historians: Mary Beard, Richard Evans, Sudhir Hazareesingh, Carole Hillenbrand, Diarmaid MacCulloch, and chair David Cannadine. Now that they've narrowed down the submissions to the six-strong shortlist, the panel of judges will now have to select one winner. 

David Cannadine, Chair of the Wolfson History Prize judges said: ‘This year’s shortlist showcases the extraordinary range and breadth of contemporary historical writing. From politics, slavery and international relations to healthcare and societal transformation, the six titles – with subjects spanning continents and centuries – offer profound insights and stand out for their rigorous research and compelling storytelling.’

The Winner of the Wolfson History Prize 2024 will be announced at a ceremony in central London on Monday 2nd December. 

Learn more about the Wolfson History Prize at www.wolfsonhistoryprize.org.uk.

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